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| "Netflix agreed to three more movies! My evil plan is coming to fruition!" |
Let’s pretend, for a moment, that film fans don’t hate Adam Sandler these days. Whether their reasons for doing so are
legitimate or not, who cares. Let’s just
stop and take a nice, objective and honest look at Sandler and Happy Madison’s
newest offering – the Netflix Original film, The Ridiculous 6. Unfortunately
for Sandler, and those that still champion his particular brand of
intentionally dumb comedy, The Ridiculous
6 does little besides arm film fans with more reasons to believe he is on a
one-man mission to destroy comedy forever.
If it’s unclear from the title, The Ridiculous 6 is Happy Madison and director Frank Coraci, of Wedding Singer fame and Blended infamy, attempting to create a
parody of classic westerns like The
Magnificent Seven. The Magnificent Seven gave moviegoers a
“who’s who” of 1960’s cinema and some of the greatest team building scenes in
the history of movies. The Ridiculous 6, on the other hand,
collects a handful of today’s best comedians and straps them to the cement
shoes of Sandler and his SNL cohorts who have long since passed their comedic
prime. Although, admittedly, most of the
performances in this near-travesty are, frankly, fine. Nobody, except Sandler
and his role as the world’s least believable action star, really seems to phone
it in. Even Taylor Lautner gives a pretty
committed performance with his best “Simple Jack” impersonation. Now, it’s not funny nor clever, so don’t take
that as praise – but he certainly gave it a shot. The remaining members of the titular band of
outlaws, Terry Crews, Rob Schneider, Jorge Garcia, and Luke Wilson fumble
through the movie’s dumb dialogue and script with at least some degree of
aplomb.
 |
| "This character was funny when Stiller did it, right guys?" |
Which brings us to the film’s true stumbling block – it’s
just not funny. It’s almost entirely
devoid of worthwhile dialogue or gags.
Not unlike Seth MacFarlane’s take on the Old West, A Million Ways to Die in the West, The Ridiculous 6 is just plain dumb. Excuse the spoiler for a moment, but a donkey
with explosive diarrhea is a repeated
plot device and source of a theoretical laugh. It’s honestly downright offensive as a joke
in a comedy clearly written for adults.
Most frustrating for this viewer, was the sheer number of callbacks to
dumb jokes throughout the film. If it
wasn’t funny the first time, what makes you think we want to hear it
again? Sandler has made some
laugh-out-loud funny movies in his career – this is not one of them. Apart from a few cracked smiles and maybe a
snort of derision, The Ridiculous 6 had
no real impact.
There’s something fundamentally wrong with this and other
recent films of its ilk. Satire and
parody worked in the ‘80s, perhaps because it was aware of its own absurdity
and, at times, stupidity. Movies like The Ridiculous 6 and Pixels don’t seem to realize that they
are stupid. Arguably, they think their audience
is stupid instead, and believe that they can get away with their tasteless and
humorless gags again and again. I
watched this movie so you don’t have to.
Sure, it’s free with your Netflix subscription, but avoid it, please, so
that Netflix, and maybe the rest of Hollywood, will stop giving these guys
money to make movies.
Score
-Patrick B. McDonald
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